Consolidated Report of the CCMI Roundtables on the Strategic Implementation of the EU

Consolidated Report of the CCMI Roundtables on the Strategic Implementation of the EU Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials 2015/2016

At European level, the European Commission adopted on the 4th of November of 2008 Raw Materials Initiative - Meeting the Critical Needs to Ensure Growth and Employment in Europe (RMI), which was a milestone for the paradigm shift with positive impact booster of developments in the extractive sector. Indeed, the RMI has come to recognize the indispensability of mineral resources to society, competitiveness, growth and job creation in Europe. It also recognized Europe's dependence on other countries with regard to the supply of these resources and the consequent need to implement measures to ensure a safe and sustainable supply, based on three pillars: i) equitable and sustainable supply of raw materials at international markets ii) promoting sustainable supply within the EU, and iii) increased efficiency in resource use, full utilization of raw materials and promoting recycling.

In its communication entitled Tackling the Challenges in Commodity Markets and on Raw Materials dated of February 2nd of 2011, the Commission stated its intention to strengthen the implementation of IMP. For this purpose, and in order to promote investment in the extractive industries, the Commission considered of particular importance: i) the definition of a national policy for minerals, to ensure that these resources are exploited in an economically viable and harmonized manner with other national policies based on the principles of sustainable development, including the commitment to create a legal framework and appropriate information, ii) the definition of a planning policy for minerals which includes a digital geological database, a transparent methodology for identifying mineral resources, long-term and regional estimates of local demand as well as the identification and preservation of the minerals resources taking into account other land uses; and iii) the creation of an authorization procedure for exploring and extracting minerals that is clear and comprehensible to offer security and to contribute to the simplification of the administrative process.

With the goal of creating a favourable investment climate, the Commission also considered essential to adopt measures aimed at greater transparency of fees through the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the promotion of good governance in tax matters.

MS consider the EU’s mineral resources potential as a factor of economic development, it is therefore necessary to define an integrated approach to this sector, covering the economics, social and environmental issues, as well as the definition of a legal and institutional framework for the effective exercise of the various activities.

Responsible exploitation of mineral resources constitutes an important development that can considerably contribute to the performance of the national economy. To do so, prior consolidation of a sustainable policy is required that addresses the economic, social and environmental aspects in an integrated manner, and well defines an efficient legal and institutional framework.

The various national Roundtables were conducted in 2015: Spain (March), Slovakia (April), Romania (June), Finland (September), and2016 Portugal (April), Ireland (May), Poland (June), Czech Republic (November), Belgium (November).

The following could be concluded: There is a need for a medium term action plan until 2030 and a long-term one till 2050. This action plan needs to address the following challenges:

-security of raw material supply including the definition of base load, specific requirements for enabling technologies and addressing economic resilience;

-addressing the energy/climate change nexus including development of clean technologies, sustainability of regions facing closures of coal mines, and ensuring of raw materials for alternative energy generations and uses.

Two axes need particular attention:

• Axis A: The national policy and legislative dimension

In this context, National Strategies for raw materials should aim at promoting:

a) dynamic, ensuring the uptake and holding of investment and proper exploitation of resources;

b) sustainability at economic, social, environmental and territorial levels;

c) growth of the national economy, by ensuring supply of essential raw materials and reinforces its importance in the national Gross Domestic Product and exports; and

d) regional development, guaranteed return and employment for local people and ensures the development of the communities where it operates.

In particular:

• Role of the government
• Minerals policy should be in line with the long term industrial policy of the country (e.g. the energy policy until 2050), and in this regard the availability of raw materials essential for the development of the industry should be defined;
• An adequate basis for the sector needs to be re-established, by redefining the roles of the central government and regional authorities in relation-to each other and in relation to policies to be implemented; and the respective public bodies need to be

enabled to the correct execution of their roles. In order to overcome capacity issues and shorten time lines for permitting the administration should consider enabling a third parties (e.g. academia) participating from the very beginning in the permitting process.

• Ensuring adequacy of applicable standards, updating of legal instruments, restructuring of contractual legal discipline, redefining the royalties system and other operating charges and regulating new realities.
• Land-use planning

Gaps and challenges in land-use planning practices should be identified as well as good practice examples. National, regional and local land-use planning should apply the following minimum standards. Increase the knowledge of the national potential, with preliminary identification of exploitable resources in a mining development perspective. There is a need to consider and define strategic mineral deposits in land use planning and apply best practice for access to geological information on the one hand and to land on the other hand;

• Access to raw materials resources
• A transparent and clear framework in terms of exploration and access to deposits is a minimum requirement for the sake of all concerned parties and external stakeholders. Transportation of raw materials needs to be possible. This means the safeguarding of existing or the provision of suitable road, rail or waterway infrastructure for transporting the raw materials from the extraction to processing locations and markets.
  
• Competent authorities should consider streamlining permitting procedures, the application of the one-stop-shop model, and the use of e-government solutions, such as on-line standard forms. Since there is no timeline or time restriction embedded in the EIA Directive or any other rules applicable to permitting, the exact timeframe is highly variable between different Member States and should be harmonised and shortened through a best practice guide.
• National policies to attract investors to available areas and facilitate investments in exploration and mining

Decisions to invest in countries are based on a whole host of metrics: prospectivity and availability of ground, regulatory system, permitting, sovereign risk, infrastructure, fiscal regime and mining law, cost of services and of holding ground, security of tenure, quality of in-country geologists and engineers. EU Member States compete for limited exploration dollars. Government and European policies must be in place and balanced between mineral extraction, the environment and communities.

The trust triangle between mining companies, government and its agencies, and the local community is a key component to the success of any mine. This needs to be established at the exploration stage and become a high priority during the feasibility and planning stage, and continue in the construction, operation, closure and after closure phases. Metals and minerals sustain the infrastructure for our civilization. Therefore taxation should also be adequate. Corporate taxation for mining may need to be reviewed in order to continue to attract exploration and mining companies.

The profitability of new mining investments should be assessed in connection with other industries and their needs since they depend on the mining industry, and the deposits should be used in a sustainable manner (e.g. through enhanced recovery of by-and co-products);

• Innovation
• Innovative solutions in the mining industry should be effectively supported by the national government (favourable legal framework, multi-vector system of incentives, taxes and fees) as mining companies are not motivated to take large risks;
• Important for the economic development of a Circular Economy is the recovery of raw materials through strengthened recycling (e.g.. WEEE, carbon) as this is in many areas still not economically and technologically competitive compared to primary sources needs to be fostered.
• Strengthening education .e. on recycling), and increasing public awareness of the importance of raw materials in the economy, especially since currently there is no correlation with the challenges of education systems in the modern economy, including in the field of entrepreneurship;

• Axis B -The EU policies and legislative dimension
• Safeguarding local energy supply
• Deployment of all conventional and unconventional energy sources, enabling competitive prices for energy intensive industries such as mining and down-stream processing industries.
• Energy prices have a great influence on overall mining and mineral processing costs. Many mining companies are fully integrated into globally operating value chains where additional local costs cannot be passed on to their customers for competitiveness reasons. Therefore, in any jurisdiction, mining requires competitively priced energy in order to benefit host communities over the long-term.
  
• From the energy sector it can be clearly stated that decoupling of economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions can and does occur where significant mining industries are present or even growing. High energy prices do not necessarily yield CO2 reductions where these are for example inherent in the processing of the mineral and yet they can affect the competitiveness of whole value chains. Long-term investment in more efficient mining technologies and processes is desirable, not the relocation of mining to non-EU countries.
• Knowledge and creation of synergies
• Development of knowledge and appreciation of the EU Member States’ national potentials and their potential synergies in a European context through the improvement of collection methods and systematization of information for a better use of resources and promoting synergies between public and private entities as well as monitoring of the developed mining activities EU wide.
• Participation of companies and R & D entities in the EIT on Raw Materials as well as the EU’s programmes should be supported by the state as far as possible; participation of national RTD funding agencies in ERA-NETS should be encouraged;
• Several countries are faced with the substantial challenge of closing coal mines or upgrading their power plants and the development of environmentally friendly technologies of the wider use of coal in other sectors than the energy sector. The EU policy currently discriminates coal mining, and instead should make sustainable use of existing EU resources and should actively support those countries and regions confronted with closures through RTD and structural funds to facilitate environmentally and socially sustainable revitalisation of these regions.
• Social Dimension and labour market

Modernisation and adaptation of education and training systems in view of technological developments and new work processes. This includes as well life-long learning, vocational training and dual learning schemes, which combine theoretical and practical teaching; o A strong and coherent industrial policy agenda that supports the safeguarding and creation of employment in the extractive sectors; facilitating labour mobility; and capacity building within competent authorities. It is strongly recommended to look at employment and skill development in the sector at European scale to address regional development and restructuring in the wider sector.

• Competition and sustainability

In the interest of EU economic growth and sustainability it is of utmost importance that the EU stops paying lip-service to sustainability goals by implementing such goals within the EU but not for products entering the EU. It therefore needs to ensure that legal frameworks are sufficiently robust to protect European industries against unfair competition and ensure a legal framework that protects EU customers from unfair global competition or leakage of production due to unilaterally self-imposed costs and rewards stand-out productivity performance;

Main partners of these events were Euromines, Eurocoal, IndustriAll and the European Commission, however in each event there were also a number of local partners:

• Spain: Confedem and Centro para el DesarrolloTecnológico Industrial
• Slovakia: Ministry for Economy
• Romania: University Politehnika of Bucharest, Ministry of Economy, Meridian
• Finland: Federation of Finnish Enterprises, Finnish Mining Association (Finnmin)
• Portugal: Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, Direção-Geral de Energia e Geologia
• Ireland: Geological Survey of Ireland, Department of Communications, Energy and Natural resources
• Poland: Ministry of Economic Development, Employers’ organization of polish copper
• Czech Republic: Mining Association of the Czech Republic, Ministry of Industry and Trade

List of CCMI members/delegates involved in these round tables:

Lucie Studničná

Carlos Trias Pintó

Casado Lopez Juan Manuel

Dumitru Fornea

Eugen Lucan

Gerald Kreuzer

Glorieux Jacques

Hilde Van Laere

Jacques Glorieux

Josef Zboril

LasiauskasLinas

Lobo Xavier Gonçalo

Lohan Cillian

NovotnýVladimír

Pegado Liz Jorge

Plosceanu Aurel Laurentiu

Pop Ion

Renata Eisenvortova

Rzepecki Przemyslaw

Sauli Vantti

Seamus Boland

Thomas Palmgren

Víctor Fernández Vázquez

YiapanisAnastasis